Regrets
by DigiSim
Summary: [Complete] A Ranma cast member reflects on their past. If only things had gone differently, would they be the type of person they are today? Please Read and Review. And please, no flames.


Regrets  
  
By DigiSim  
  
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What can I say? I was a fool for love. The very first man I've ever fallen for and I never got him. It still bothers me that I lost him to that air- headed big-breasted bimbo. Sure, I don't go flying into rages anymore when I think about it. I only did when I was alone. But I got so mad I wanted to pound him with some heavy blunt object. The worst part though was that I never told him how I felt. That's how I lost him.  
  
When we first met, we had a fight. He beat me too easily. But he was also not as he appeared. I learned that later. I got over what I thought of as a deception later on. It wasn't anything he had any control over anyway. As time went on, I found myself loving him more and more. He also did things that irritated me to no end. That cocky smile of his though could usually tick me off or make my heart soar.  
  
I was never invited to the wedding. I didn't even know the two of them had gotten married till it was far too late. I saved a little girl's life once and found out later she was his daughter; his and the bimbo's. I'm surprised I didn't scream my head off when I learned that. I couldn't hate the kid. No matter how much I wanted to. She was just too sweet. She reminded me of someone I knew. She was all innocence and charm. Just like her namesake.  
  
As the years went by, I actually tried a few ridiculous stunts to win him back. I almost alienated him the time I tried to seduce him in his own bed while the bimbo was gone on a short trip. That was a magnificent failure. When he asked me what I had been trying to do, I lied to him and told him I had been sick and not thinking clearly. Luckily he bought it.  
  
My heart shattered the day I found out he had died. He had lived to a ripe old age surrounded by children and grandchildren. I hated the fact that I had outlived him. His wife had passed away a few years previously and I was a shoulder for him to cry on because of it, but nothing more then that. Even at that age, he still had all his hair. It was also still wild, just like him.  
  
It was a nice funeral, attended by his friends, family, a few former enemies and me. The will reading was brief. Even after all those years, he hadn't acquired many possessions. His family didn't want for anything however. I was also willed some money to line my pockets. I could have cared less about that. All this time and all I still wanted was him. Now it was impossible.  
  
When my father died, I had been the sole heir of my family's martial arts style. Now with my advanced years, it was too late for me to find someone to carry on the school. I had never married or even taken a lover. There were a few men that had wanted me to be theirs but I spurned them and they eventually turned to other women, in one case each other and I was left behind. I didn't mind it, as long as they were happy.  
  
One day, while traveling, I happened on a clearing where there were some strange mushrooms. This was some time after he had passed. I would usually take trips to clear my mind. I was slightly hungry when I discovered the mushrooms so I decided to cook some. My cooking had improved quite a bit over the years. It used to be so awful I can't even begin to describe it.  
  
When I awoke, I was confused. Looking around me, I discovered I was in a hut of some kind. The last thing I remembered was eating one of the mushrooms, a four centimeter long one if I recalled correctly and then everything went black. It was then that someone came in and calmly explained to me that I was found not too far away from the village I was now in. The woman giving the explanation was talking to me like I was a child and that made me mad.  
  
I gave her my coldest stare and told her she should show some respect to those older than her. It was then I noticed my voice. It was no longer the slight raspy rumble but a smooth and high pitched flow. I stared in amazement at my hands and saw flawless flesh, not a wrinkle in sight. My surprise must have been a clue to the woman because then she told me of these mushrooms that change a person's age. I had heard of them before but for the life of me, I couldn't remember when that was.  
  
I told her the last thing that had happened to me before I woke up where I was and that confirmed it for her. The problem was that I couldn't use more mushrooms to regain my former age or even become a decade or two older then I was at the moment. Finding them is usually impossible. I ended up being adopted by the woman. It was nice to have a mother again since I had lost mine at such a young age.  
  
Time seemed to fly by for me. I grew up in a loving home with the woman I eventually and lovingly called mother. She had lost her husband and only son to some sort of wild animal attack a few months before she had found me. I even found love in the village. He was a handsome young man. Not as handsome as my first love, but he was also very kind. In time, he became my husband.  
  
Time marched on and pretty soon I was left alone again. My husband died in his sleep one cold winter's night, leaving me not only a widow but an old one at that. My sons and daughters did their best to console me, but it wasn't enough. I left one day, telling nobody where I was headed and never looked back. I sometimes wish I hadn't. During my wanderings I found them again, those ridiculous mushrooms. You can guess what happened then.  
  
I ended up locked in a cycle after that. I would find the mushrooms, eat a short one and find myself in some village or town and go through life over and over. It was a while before I realized they were having an affect on me. It was starting to be longer and longer before I had my little feasts.  
  
The latest time was the longest so far. The world had changed so much that I hardly recognized it anymore. The latest village I stayed in I later discovered was once my original one. I had finally returned home. I went through the cycle here quite a few times. This time around though, when I had the notion to go get the little buggers that were keeping me alive, I realized that it had been decades past the usual time I would leave.  
  
I had also only given birth to one child. My son had a son and he had a daughter. She was sixteen at the time when he returned. Yes, that he. His soul may have been born in a new form but I knew it was him right away. This time, I couldn't let him get away. When he left the village, chase was given but not by me. I had set out to find the fungi that had started all this. I needed to be my young and perky self if I was going to jump his bones you know.  
  
Like I said earlier, they are usually hard to find but this time it was implausible. It was like they had vanished off the face of the earth. I received word that his pursuer had found him and tried to take him back to the village for her own. She failed miserably. When she returned she was punished for her impetuousness. I went back with her to the town he was staying in to try to retrieve him. I just felt I had to see him again, be near him again even if it was so he could be married off to someone else. As long as he was back in my life, I could live with it.  
  
We established a business in the town, one he sometimes frequented. With every visit, after all these centuries yet being reborn as someone else he still made my heart soar. Even his cocky smile was still there.  
  
I still wish I could tell him how I feel. If I had the mushrooms, maybe I could finally marry him and maybe, just maybe, we could have our Happily Ever After. Unfortunately, he already has his eye on someone else. I doubt he would even believe me if I told him I knew him in a past life. I'm afraid I've deceived him a few times while here and that made his trusting me not an easy thing to do.  
  
All I truly care about is his happiness, nothing more and nothing less. I still have dreams about him, the way his body would flow through a kata, the sound of his voice as he and I chat about nothing at all and sometimes I would dream about what might have been if I had been a little braver. When I look into his eyes, I see the man I remember him to be and the man he is becoming now. He even moves like the warrior he was.  
  
Maybe someday I can tell him about us. Maybe someday I can tell him who he was and what he meant to me. Maybe someday, I Cologne of the Joketsuzoku who used to be known as Yuffie Kisaragi can tell Ranma Saotome about the wonderful man he once was, Cloud Strife. Maybe someday, I can. Only time will tell.  
  
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Author's Notes:  
  
Okay, so it's not my best work but it needed to be written. I know it's short but it is supposed to be a one-shot. They are usually short anyway. The bimbo that Cologne was referring to, as if you people didn't know was Tifa Lockheart. The little girl's namesake was of course Aeris Gainsborough.  
  
I usually like crossovers so I thought I would not only write one, well another one, but finish it as well. If it isn't all that great, I'll revise it some other time. I hope those of you that read this at least liked something about it. As always, remember my motto, "My fic, my rules." See you in the funny papers. 


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